Some Big Weather Changes in Indianapolis

Looks like there are some big changes in the weather in Indianapolis and it has nothing to do with what's going on outside.​

WTHR-TV Channel 13 Meteorologist Chikage Windler is scheduled to sign off the local air Tuesday afternoon before departing for a new position in Texas in the latest in a series of shakeups involving local weathercasters.

Windler, who joined WTHR in May 2011, is taking over as chief meteorologist at KEYE-TV, the CBS affiliate in Austin, Tex., on March 4, she wrote in a post on Facebook.

The Indianapolis Business Journal writes that her departure comes the same week as WISH-TV Channel 8 announced it has hired Robb Ellis as its weekday evening meteorologist. Ellis, who led the weather team at the NBC and Fox affiliates in Wilmington, N.C., is scheduled to debut locally in mid-March.

Ellis' experience includes seven years as a scientist and researcher, and coverage of an historic tornado outbreak and Superstorm Sandy, WISH-TV News Director Steve Bray, himself a former weatherman who took over the top job late last year, noted in a statement.

Meantime, meteorologist Angela Buchman, who left WISH last August, is expected to begin at WTHR later this year after a one-year noncompete clause expires. Other WTHR meteorologists include Chuck Lofton, Nicole Misencik and Chris Wright.

Buchman, an Indianapolis-area native who joined WISH in 2001 after a four-year stint at a station in Sacramento, Calif., noted on Twitter this week that she's looking forward to returning to the air in the fall. She's been offering weather updates on Twitter for roughly 7,000 followers.

"I am enjoying some extra time with my family," she wrote in a message to one fan.

Windler worked at KSTP-TV, the ABC affiliate in Minneapolis-St. Paul, before joining WTHR. The University of Oklahoma graduate (with degrees in meteorology and broadcast journalism) got her start in TV news after chasing tornadoes as part of a project at the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.